Tuesday, March 9, 2010

General Updates

Hi, I know it's been a week between posts again, but what can I say? Life is busy and I suppose there hasn't been much of note to report on lately. We're still scheduled to move at the end of the month, and there is a boatload of packing to do. It's hard to find the time and energy to do it, because I'm usually so beat by the end of the day that it's the last thing I feel like doing once Jacob's in bed and I have the freedom. I'd much rather sit on the couch and tackle the long list of stuff sitting in our DVR. It'll get done one way or another, but I'm starting to get nervous. Having Jacob around makes it all that much tougher, because I'm hesitant to pack up too much of his stuff too early, either because he'll have outgrown it before we unpack it or because he'll decide he HAS to have that toy right NOW. Once we're only a week or two out I'm not going to worry about stuff like that, but I will have to make some tough decisions very soon about what can be packed, what needs to stay accessible, and what needs to be completely jettisoned from our world. It's a lot to think about in addition to our normal daily life, and that's not even getting into all of the decisions we have to make about movers, insurance, switching utilities, etc., and doing it all in the midst of a very busy time for Craig at work. I knew there was a reason we moved in the summer last time!

Still, I'm definitely getting excited. The new house will have some extra space, lots of storage, a dishwasher and garbage disposal, and a hopefully a lot less headaches in general than ours now. Since the moment we had our inspection on our current home, I've been convinced it's a money pit...and that's always left some sort of dark cloud hanging above it...in my mind, anyway. It's one thing to have a bunch of cosmetic things that you'd like to do to your house...and it's another to have things that you need to do to your house for safety/sanity purposes. And the thought of having a new house that doesn't have those issues attached to it is nice. I'm sure we'll find issues there, too, but hopefully nothing that causes us any additional stress. I'm really looking forward to having more room for an active toddler (and potentially more control over where he can roam, depending on how we work the baby gates). Jacob runs all over the place now, usually with a hockey stick in hand, and he's starting to make me nervous. He's also giving the wood floors a big test with all of his hockey playing, so I will be relieved to have a house that's mostly carpeted! I'm still nervous about the big yard and the swimming pool, not to mention a slightly larger financial burden that comes with a bigger house, but I think it'll be worth it in the end when we're not having to price out additional insulation/mouse poop cleaning, a new roof, a kitchen redo, etc., or having to worry about carving out more space when baby #2 becomes a reality.

As for Jacob, he's definitely making progress. As I said, he's now running around like a maniac. Of course, he's also super clumsy, so it seems like he's falling into things all the time. It doesn't help that when he's cranky he will flail around uncontrollably, inevitably throwing body parts into the nearest wall or floor. Lovely. He's still obsessed with sports. The latest addition to his vocabulary is the two word term, "hockey puck". He could say each one separately before, but put the two words together this weekend. I can definitely tell that he's understanding a lot of words these days. Even if he can't say them, he can identify things if you ask him. He's got this baby laptop that has a grid of pictures on it, and last night I was asking him to point to things that he's never said the word for, and he was doing really well. And just in general he's babbling a LOT. He talks all the time, though most of the words aren't understandable right now. But he sounds like he's having a normal conversation with full sentences, so I guess that's a start. He'll sit in his crib and chat to himself for a good half hour in the morning, and all I can think the whole time is how much he's practicing for when the real words finally come! Still, it's getting frustrating now that he's having a lot of wants and needs and doesn't have the words to tell us. He whines a lot and cries like crazy when he doesn't get his way, and no matter how many times I ask him what he wants or tell him to point to the body part that hurts or to calm down, he just keeps going. So. Extremely. Frustrating.

He's still not eating great, but if it's something he really likes he'll usually do okay. He loves fruit, garlic bread, fast food hamburgers, french fries, and a handful of other things. Even some things he appears to like one day he will completely reject the next. Lately he's reverted to throwing food, which gets on my last nerve. His last four teeth before the four year molars have all broken through (the last two relatively easily, might I add--no night waking for a change!), so Jacob will nearly have a full set of teeth in a few short weeks. He's still not the best chewer and routinely gags himself or spits out food when he gives up chewing. Again, very frustrating. You can only say "Chew!" and demonstrate it so much! I'm trying not to worry about how much he's eating, because his daycare reports look pretty good food-wise. He's not really gaining much weight, though somedays he does feel heavier to me...but that might be because he's getting squirmier, too.

He tends to be very Jekyll and Hyde right now, going from a complete and utter meltdown to a goofy, kissy kid out of nowhere. The tantrums are tough, but I'm trying to find the balance between discipline and giving him the support he needs. You read a lot about how toddlers don't have self-control and meltdowns are a scary loss-of-control thing for them. So, even though I don't want to encourage the behavior by giving in, I try to let him go until he either calms a bit or gets unsafely hysterical (writhing around on the floor, pushing himself with his feet until his head hits furniture) and grab him to try to calm him down. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When he's not having a tantrum, he can be the sweetest, most loving kid. He'll smile and kiss, share his food with people or his stuffed animals, make his stuffed animals kiss, or just act like the sweetest, funniest kid ever. Of course, it gets a little frustrating when he thinks he's being cute and is really just disobeying. He will flat out do what you just told him not to, all the while with a smile on his face and a gleam in his eye. He likes to be chased (especially up stairs...ugh) and will run from you without fear. He's already trying to shake off my hand when we're out in public, no matter how many times I have to tell him that he needs to hold it. He's definitely stubborn! But he's really stinkin' cute, which softens the blow a bit!

I guess that's all I have for now. Hopefully I'll have some pictures from the weekend soon...